


Runaway Baby

by rvst



Series: FemTropeBingo 2015 [1]
Category: Carmilla (Web Series), Carmilla - J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Genre: F/F, Trope: Hitchhiking, Western AU, anachronisms abound, femtropebingo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-14
Updated: 2015-02-14
Packaged: 2018-03-12 09:30:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3351686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rvst/pseuds/rvst
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carmilla leaned forward in her seat, ignoring the side-eye her driver gave her at the sudden movement after hours of silent stillness, she had to get a better look. The journey home was coming to a close and this could be the last interesting thing that would ever happen to her.</p><p>So she was a little over dramatic. Sue her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Runaway Baby

**Author's Note:**

> Writing Imaginary Devils is kicking my ass, so I've decided to do femtropebingo to jolt myself into actually writing the damn monster.
> 
> Also, the world needs more Lawstein.

* * *

 

Carmilla didn't want to be a brat. That was what her idiotic little brother was for, William did love a whine. The heat seeped in through the metal of the towncar. She was allowed to finish her education as Mother needed a medical professional for the burgeoning town, and Carmilla would be eternally grateful and gracious. So no complaining about the horrible weather.

 

The roads were paved, kind of, and the town car was mostly stable. Anything was better than a horse or one of those rust bucket pick up trucks the farmers of the town favoured. She had an excellent view of the absolute nothingness of the world flying by and the driver went slower than the speed limit. Her request. Meeting with Mother and brother weren't high on Carmilla's list and she did say she wouldn't be home until well into the night.

 

Mother could wait to have her doctor daughter back. Hopefully no one fell ill while she was enjoying the last hours of her freedom.

 

Carmilla watched the horizon remain unchanging, alternating her peaceful time between the world rushing past out the side windows and the world coming directly at her through her limited view of the windshield. Her mind raced through her final exams, everything she knew she got wrong, all the hours she put in, and the growing dot out the front window.

 

The appearance of literally anything that wasn't a lonely piece of vegetation was instantly the most interesting thing in Carmilla's world. From his lack of reaction, the driver had not noticed whatever it was they were driving towards.

 

The road was so long and flat that she could almost see the curvature of the planet, so it annoyed the almighty hell out of her that it took an age to get close enough to the distant figure for her to identify whatever it could be.

 

Carmilla leaned forward in her seat, ignoring the side-eye her driver gave her at the sudden movement after hours of silent stillness, she had to get a better look. The journey home was coming to a close and this could be the last interesting thing that would ever happen to her.

 

So she was a little over dramatic. Sue her.

 

The driver finally caught sight of what his charge was so keenly interested in, the car shifted off towards the side of the road as his attention from his job wavered. Carmilla leaned even further forward, poking him in the shoulder when she recognized what the figure had to be.

 

A person. In the middle of nowhere. On foot.

 

Carmilla immediately decided that they were stopping. She'd lie and say the person was dying if Mother asked why the delay. Hell, she had enough drugs in her medical case to bring whoever it was to near-death to make her story all the more believable. Or maybe they were in need of medical attention, or directions, or a ride at the very least.

 

The driver grumbled under his breath about ungrateful brats, but he pulled over behind the person, the woman, anyway so Carmilla pretended she didn't hear anything.

 

The woman was tall, beyond tall. Carmilla slipped out of the car as her brilliant red hair fluttered gently in the minimal breeze. The woman had graciously stopped when they pulled up behind her, rather than running in the other direction like a sane person would. They could be murderers. Carmilla had a theory going over the last six hours of the trip that the driver was probably a murderer.

 

There was something wrong with anyone working for her Mother willingly.

 

The woman wasn't even wary of their sudden appearance, instead she smiled brightly and waves with more enthusiasm than anyone walking out in the late afternoon heat should be able to muster.

 

The woman wasn't even wary of their sudden appearance, instead she smiled brightly and waves with more enthusiasm than anyone walking out in the late afternoon heat should be able to muster.

 

The driver made a token effort to put himself between Carmilla and the complete stranger. Carmilla didn't lose her temper at him, though only because she didn't wish to make a poor first impression on the woman.

 

The driver reached the woman first, in a half-hearted attempt to keep Carmilla safe no doubt. Carmilla found the whole concept to be ridiculous, clearly the man wasn't hired by her Mother personally because she didn't actually seem to care much about her daughter's continued survival. Certainly not enough to pay someone to put their life on the line for hers.

 

"Isn't hitchhiking illegal in this country?" Carmilla fumed silently behind the driver as his stupid mouth formed stupid words. The woman kept smiling.

 

"I am out for a pleasant stroll, and I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about," she countered with ease. Carmilla calmed, the driver remained silent. "You pulled over, I wouldn't have noticed if you just kept on going."

 

The driver looked over his shoulder at Carmilla and saw that she was glaring at him for his perceived insult. He took her silence as a dismissal and returned to the car. The woman followed him with her eyes as if she were assessing a threat, seeing none she returned focus to Carmilla herself.

 

"Hello."

 

Carmilla would have smacked her own forehead if she were alone, or die immediately from embarrassment. Not the best first impression she'd ever made but by far not the worst. The woman, perhaps annoyingly at this point, didn't falter one iota in her bright grinning.

 

"Good afternoon, Miss-?" Carmilla immediately thought that this was a much better opening line, though the presumed title was a bit much. How young did the woman think she was? One way to stop that kind of thinking.

 

"Doctor," she answered, keeping her tone unaffected and low. The woman only smiled wider. Despite her medical training, Carmilla was pretty sure that she was going to hurt herself if she kept doing that for much longer.

 

"Doctor-?" The woman didn't shift her tone, asking in the exact same way. She was the first person to accept Carmilla's title without further questioning. Most people assumed she was too young, or too feeble, or, weirdly, too short. It was a small bar for the woman to jump over, but the fact that she did touched Carmilla's heart a little.

 

"Carmilla," she introduced herself while offering the woman her hand to shake. Her eyebrows creased together and her head tilted to the side, as if Carmilla's name confused her. Which she understood on a deep and long-suffering level. She tried to anagram it into something better when she was younger, Carmilla was the best option after days of debating with herself. "I'm Carmilla, and he's some person my Mother hired to chaperone me on the dangerous journey home."

 

The woman peered long into the distance then turned to scrutinize the other. "Is boredom a serious concern to your Mother?"

 

Carmilla's lips quirked upwards, "Mother has a variety of concerns about my health."

 

The woman stared openly at her, taking her time to process. She opened her mouth to speak four times before settling on what to say. "I'm not touching that. I'm Danny by the way."

 

The driver slammed his door. "Excuse the child, he's not housebroken yet."

 

Danny laughed. Carmilla took a moment to appreciate the joyous noise, before the oddity of her situation hit her again.

 

"Why are you walking out in the middle of nowhere? If you aren't actually hitchhiking?" Danny blushed, probably, the heat made it hard to tell. "Are you, I mean, the car is unnecessarily large and it's just me so-"

 

"I'm not!" Danny laughed through her words. Carmilla felt her cheeks warm. "Job finished so I'm moving on, to the next town." Danny pointed towards the small town Carmilla's Mother dragged her family across the continent to settle.

 

"But walking?" Carmilla had nothing more than complete and utter hatred for physical activity. The mere concept of walking that far drove her to distraction.

 

"Significantly less likely to be murdered via serial killer this way," Danny said, as if this justified spending at least one day outside moving and walking and exerting effort in general.

 

Beside them the car attempted to start. Then it tried again. Carmilla sighed.

 

"How does one go about walking that far without dying?" Danny smiled at her, which was rewarding. "Is it humanly possible?" At this Danny laughed, though she clearly tried to hold it in.

 

The driver slammed the door of the poor car for the second time in less than five minutes. "He seems nice."

 

Carmilla rolled her eyes. "That man has not said two words to me since we set off hours ago. Nice is not the word I would use."

 

Danny hummed in agreement. "He seems like a colossal dick."

 

"He was hired by Mother," Carmilla spat the word out like it was poisonous to her, "therefore, he is absolutely a dick."

 

Danny took this in stride, shuffling her feet in the dirt while pushing the hair out of her face. The driver threw open the hood of the car with far more force than necessary, causing Carmilla to flinch. Bright blue eyes were on her, concerned, in a heartbeat. The vaguely rewarding feeling returned. Carmilla met her gaze with a careful challenge, daring the woman to question her. She was pretty sure she won.

 

"I was going to cut through the woodlands over that way in a few minutes," explained Danny, gently deflecting both of their attentions away from Carmilla's reaction. "I'd be happy to escort you and your dickhead through if he can't fix it."

 

The easygoing smile was back in full force, though with a tint of mischievousness around the edges of her face. It was Carmilla's turn to scrutinized Danny, slowly taking in her entire body in search of any irregularities with her story. She missed the magnificent shade of red the woman's face went when she noticed she was essentially being leered at by a tiny gorgeous stranger.

 

"Fucking mongrel bastard!"

 

Danny eyed the driver suspiciously as he bent over the engine. His outburst was hard to miss. Carmilla didn't notice how little he was actually doing to the engine, not that she would have any idea what needed fixing. She was entirely too taken by the woman in front of her and her task of finding flaw with her endless lengths of body. The driver could turn out to be a murderer for all she cared at this point in her life.

 

Danny subtly put herself in between the tiny woman and the driver. He seemed to be moving random engine parts around with little to no directional intent, nor would he respond when she asked him what exactly the problem with the car was, he ignored her completely. It took several minutes of awkward silence, but Danny eventually zeroed in on the driver's muttering underneath his breath.

 

Carmilla watched the confused tilt of her head turn immediately into wide eyes and panicked breathing. Danny flicked her attention between the driver who hadn't noticed her sudden distress and Carmilla who had taken over her previously confused state. Danny moved closer, almost within Carmilla's personal space, and the doctor's breathing stopped while she processed this brand new information.

 

Walking from the previous town to her own clearly left the traveler with an attractive aura of exertion that Carmilla couldn't help but be drawn towards. She wanted to step closer to Danny, to do exactly what she spent her entire higher education doing. Flirting and enticing women into bed with her, it was a pleasurable way to pass the time and Carmilla was sure she could convince the hitchhiker of this plain and obvious fact.

 

"Mother better pay extra for this." Carmilla heard that piece of the driver's monologue. She stepped to the side to see around Danny since seeing over her was never going to happen unless she suddenly acquired a ladder. The driver had a wrench in his hand, arm raised, trajectory set for Danny's head.

 

Danny hunched herself while swinging her left fist at his throat. His swing barely disturbed the hair on her head. The fist connected and the strangled noise he made was deeply satisfying. Carmilla hated the idea of getting a stranger into a dangerous situation and then not helping so she dropped her shoulder and forced her bones into the space directly underneath his ribs. The man fell backwards, grabbing at Carmilla's clothes as he went.

 

She didn't have the time nor the reflexes to stop her fall. Carmilla crashed to the ground next to him, rolling awkwardly. She heard Danny gasp somewhere behind them and then her world narrowed to her left ankle.

 

Carmilla didn't scream. Pain wasn't new. The driver screeched but was abruptly cut off by his head cracking against the paved road. His eyes rolled shut. Danny slid to her knees next to Carmilla.

 

Carmilla whimpered, clutching at her ankle, knowing that she was doing more harm than good. Holding it had a psychological benefit, so she was ignoring the doctor part of her brain for a minute.

 

"How bad?" Danny's eyes were flying over Carmilla's body, searching for any other signs of injury. Carmilla immediately thought through the tears welling up in her eyes that this woman was damn cute while worried.

 

"It's just a light sprain, probably fine tomorrow," Carmilla pushed out through her gritted teeth. Danny frowned at this information, moving to check on the driver. "Is he alive?"

 

Danny sighed. "He's breathing," she grumbled, opening his hand to get the keys to the car. She went and tried them in the ignition. The car failed to start just as before. "Maybe he wasn't faking it," she said to herself. Carmilla heard her despite this, agreeing silently.

 

"'I've run into some car trouble and cannot escape. I know! I'll try to carry out my homicidal mission stuck in the middle of nowhere!' Idiot," Carmillla mocked before kicking his unconscious body with her uninjured foot.

 

"You do realise that we are now stuck in the middle of nowhere, right?" Danny called from the back of the car where she was inspecting the luggage compartment. "How much of this can you handle leaving behind?"

 

Carmilla felt her blood run cold. The afternoon sun was already beating down on her pale skin. Danny didn't sound worried though. "You were planning on walking to town anyway, Red!"

 

Carmilla tentatively stood on her right leg, not willing just yet to try and put any weight on her injured foot. She grazed the bottom of her shoe over some small rocks, hissing immediately at the shooting pain she was immediately greeted with.

 

"That doesn't answer my other question, Doctor!"

 

"My medical bag," she answered with great strain. Danny's head popped out from behind the car to scrutinise her quivering body again. "Staring is rude!"

 

"So is not telling your brand new travelling companion that you can't walk!" Danny yelled right back, not giving Carmilla a single inch. She shut the compartment and retuned to Carmilla, expensive leather bag in hand. "Thoughts, dumbass?"

 

Carmilla snarled at the insult, though she lacked her usual venom. Pain sucked it right out of her and boy was she in pain. "I could maybe walk with help," she admitted quietly, forcing her wounded pride down until it shut the hell up with the complaining.

 

"It's an hour or two until the place I was going to set up camp for the night, and then another eight or nine until town, can you walk that far?"

 

Carmilla tested her foot once more, barely stopping her wince from turning into a cry. She averted her eyes from Danny and shook her head in the negative.

 

"You hold this," she brandished Carmilla's medical bag at her, "and I'll do the rest."

 

Danny picked up her pack from where it had fallen during the scuffle and settled it onto her shoulders. Carmilla held her bag to her chest while ignoring the growing strain on her right leg the added weight was providing. “What are you-?”

 

She didn't get to finish her question as she was unceremoniously lifted into Danny's arms, one hooked underneath her knees and the other secured around her torso.

 

“I can carry you that far,” she explained, as if she wasn't offering to carry a full-grown woman for at least an hour. “No problem.”

 

Carmilla, wisely, did not call bullshit on her claim. Being dropped would not be good for her continued health, and she was generally fucked if Danny chose to leave her alone on the side of the road.

 

She poked Danny's arms and was rewarded with an involuntary flex that sent shivers down her spine. “If you say so.”

 

Danny grinned again, kicking her heels bashfully on the ground before setting off.

 

“Next stop: The Middle Of Nowhere With Slightly More Shade!”

 

* * *

 

 

Carmilla could safely say that she hadn't ever been carried around before, yet here was a random hitchhiker, gorgeous and tall and god damn sculpted, easily taking her weight. The pain from her ankle pulsed and demanded to be felt. She feared the moment Danny's arms would give out, that her driver would be proven correct. Carmilla cursed her own stubbornness, if they couldn't make it to town on their own, then she would look just as foolish and naive as Mother insisted. Even including the attempted assassination she thwarted.

 

Danny redistributed Carmilla's weight in her arms, rolling her shoulders while she twisted her head this way and that in an attempt to get rid of whatever pain was obviously forming there. Carmilla kept herself perfectly still except for a slight tightening of her grip on Danny's shoulders. Anything she could do to make up for her troublesome driver landing them here.

 

"Now, you said we could make it to the town on our own, right?" Danny broke their silence. She glared at the strap slipping off her right shoulder, and Carmilla considered what she could have inside her pack. Something heavy, the guilt weighed on her again. They should have stolen the car.

 

"I plan to claim heat stroke in the future for my actions this afternoon, but yes," Carmilla answered. Danny's big grin came back, despite the sweat rolling down her face and the exhaustion covering her features. "Do you need a break?"

 

Danny turned away from the pathway through the woodlands she'd been carefully navigating for the last ten minutes. She didn't respond to Carmilla until they came to a clearing. Danny set Carmilla down on a smooth rock just large enough for her admittedly small body to fit upon.

 

"This is where I usually camp out when I come through here if that's alright with you?" Danny proposed while she busied herself with collecting kindling and setting her pack down gently. "Your foot needs to be rested and my arms are killing me, we could both use a break for eight or nine hours."

 

Carmilla heard her, yet the lure of the sky and the stares drew her attention quickly and absolutely. Danny could have been screaming bloody murder and Carmilla might have registered the noise in the deepest pits of her mind. The bright darkness held her long enough that she didn't break her concentration until the crackling of a campfire triggered a fight or flight response.

 

Carmilla jumped, fell off the rock, and bit her tongue in an attempt to smother the scream that fought to be free itself from her throat. Danny was on her feet and literally leaping over the medium sized fire to be at Carmilla's side in moments. She touched lightly at Carmilla's hand as it clutched at her ankle while inspecting the smaller woman for any other signs of injury or discomfort.

 

"That was graceful," Carmilla hissed through gritted teeth. Danny looked like she was about to scoop her body up again, and Carmilla forced herself to suck up the pain to prevent her already tired arms from over-exerting themselves further. "I'm okay, I'm okay."

 

Danny's concern faded, though her eyes didn't leave Carmilla's for tense moments. "You're sure?"

 

Carmilla nodded, acutely aware of how close they were and how heavily the scare had them breathing. "Fine," she forced out, not noticing how the fire made Danny's face radiate a warm glow and set her hair on fire.

 

"It's cold for stuff like this, right?" Danny asked, gesturing towards Carmilla's ankle. Carmilla nodded again and Danny was off like a shot into the woods. "Back soon!"

 

The tarp canopy gave Carmilla a sense of privacy, and she knew that the woods near town were mostly devoid of deadly creatures. She was surprised by how quickly Danny managed to set the whole camp up, and without her noticing. Light pollution was the norm at her university, so it had been years since she had such a clear view of the night sky. The tall woman returned from her expedition with her flexible water containers full to near bursting. Her triumphant grin sent shivers of attraction through Carmilla from her chest radiating out to the tips of her fingers and the bottom of her toes.

 

"Didn't get eaten by an alligator?" Carmilla couldn't help the half-sarcastic jibe. Danny's grin didn't falter, her demeanour didn't worsen, and she set about boiling and treating her collected water as if Carmilla's tone didn't touch her at all.

 

"I did actually, reincarnation times are fast around here," Danny threw back effortlessly and without hesitation. Carmilla was not used to people replying to her, either through idiocy like her driver or wilful ignorance like her family. "Sadly, he got away so we will have to make do with noodles for dinner."

 

Carmilla giggled. She didn't giggle. Ever. The hitchhiker's grin widened so far Carmilla wondered not for the first time if the heat had gotten to her brain. "Noodles are nice, I suppose," she deigned, making her opinions on the subject clear. Danny rolled her eyes.

 

"If you want, I could go try and kill the 'gator?" Danny clenched her fingers and inspected her fists. The seriousness of her expression gave Carmilla a moment's pause, wondering if she would actually go kill something for her. Danny's teasing smirk stopped even her wildest of fantasies, leaving her with no choice but to retaliate.

 

"That will surely take hours, who will keep me company while you're gone?"

 

Danny, infuriatingly, still did not hesitate. "Brilliant woman such as yourself can probably manage on her own for a few hours."

 

Dinner was quiet. Danny amused herself organising the remaining contents of her pack while Carmilla used a large stick to lean on in lieu of her leg to carry herself all the way over to the pile of blankets Danny had produced for their bed.

 

* * *

 

 

It could have been the height of summer heat and the nights would still be almost unbearably cold. Carmilla shivered now that she was away from the dying fire. Danny sat silhouetted, poking at the embers sending a shower of light up into the air every few seconds. Carmilla traced her form, regretting her cowardice. She had experience! She shouldn't be falling over herself because some attractive woman appeared out of nowhere and was all tall and hot and strong and stuff.

 

"Are you cold?" Danny called out without breaking her concentration. Carmilla startled and a chill flowed over her body. She debated between telling the truth and lying, neither was especially appealing. "I think I have another coat in my pack if you are."

 

Danny didn't seem to even be paying attention to her own words, looking away from their fire pit to rummage through her seemingly endless pack, probably messing it all up for the second time that day. Carmilla watched her carefully, still arguing with herself. Admitting her weakness would just pile upon her embarrassment further, but she was really, really cold.

 

She decided to ignore the problem and buy herself some more time.

 

"Where do you plan on sleeping?" Carmilla asked, noting for the first time that while the little makeshift tent Danny set up was nice and all, it wasn't especially wide. If they were both going to fit inside it comfortably then they would have to sleep practically on top of each other. Carmilla felt her cheeks heat up despite her body's dropping temperature, her imagination flew away from her control.

 

Danny stopped messing with her pack and tossed it away carelessly. She sighed before indicating the reasonably flat rock she'd been sitting upon since Carmilla's word vomit. Carmilla's heart thumped in her ears, and her stomach dropped unpleasantly.

 

"Do you often give up your bed to damsels on the side of the road?" It came out much flirtatious than Carmilla wanted it to, and she felt the redness brighten on her face. Danny froze for an imperceptible second before turning slowly to face her travelling companion with an unreadable expression.

 

Carmilla stared without much embarrassment while Danny deliberately came down from her perch and slowly wandered over to her. The neutral expression remained as Danny crossed the clearing. She was seemingly unfazed by Carmilla's gaze, radiating the easy confidence Carmilla could only muster after several glasses of champagne.

 

Carmilla sat up from her useless positing among the blankets when Danny knelt next to her, hoping to find some kind of even ground despite nearly a full foot of difference between them. Even sitting Danny towered over Carmilla, which did absolutely nothing for her ego. Danny's face finally did something Carmilla could identify, shifting from nothingness to a lazy grin that betrayed the exhaustion she had to be feeling. Carmilla physically had to bite her tongue to stop herself from offering the other woman the limited space next to her on the surprisingly comfortable ground.

 

"I was unaware sharing was an option, Doctor," she said after Carmilla nearly took a chunk out of her own tongue with nervous worry. How exactly did this woman seem to read her mind? It was nearly as unfair as the whole height difference issue. She opened and closed her mouth a couple of times as she clamoured internally for a suitable response. Danny saved her by continuing. "Though I wouldn't turn it down if you would be comfortable?"

 

It wasn't a question yet Carmilla heard one anyway. She also actually drew blood from inside her mouth and could feel her well-kept fingernails digging into her palms. She schooled her tongue and her mind to say literally anything other than 'I would be perfectly comfortable on top of you for eight hours, are clothes optional?'

 

"I will take all the warm you can give," she answered eventually. Not better, she thought. "If that's okay?"

 

Seeing Danny's impossibly cheery joy up close was something that Carmilla didn't see herself tiring of any time soon. "I have been know to generate the heat of a furnace."

 

Dear Lord, not helping.

 

"And I'm certain I can come up with some light thing to do so we don't go to sleep cold."

 

Oh for fuck's sake.

 

"It's actually one of the most counter-productive things to do in my experience, trying to get warm by starting out cold. It's inane and obviously pointless. Why would you do that when just a few minutes of exercise either on your own or with a partner can start you off miles ahead of where you'd be if all you did was lay there."

 

Carmilla tuned out the professional camping and survival advice in favour of watching Danny prepare for bed. Tragically, like Carmilla, this amounted to removing her belt and shoes. This was practical, they could be attacked by all kinds of dangerous creatures throughout the night, and being ready was the first step towards survival.

 

She let herself be led into a few extremely careful push-ups and a set of sit-ups, nothing compared to the harsh physical regime Mother had her on whenever she was home. They settled down into the pile of mixed fabrics Danny carefully organised as far away from each other as possible.

 

"I read somewhere that body heat is the best way to warm up, your own or someone else's." Carmilla left her words vague.

 

"Guess how many nights out in the woods I've heard that line from some horny idiot?"

 

"A million?" Danny laughed. "Yes! Love being right."

 

"Come here," Danny said while tugging on Carmilla's sleeve, "it's cheesy but if you keep your clothes on," she left the sentence hanging. Carmilla slowly moved to meet her in the middle of their pile, painfully aware of how eager she seemed even agreeing to cuddling. She would not be rushing on top of the already present embarrassment.

 

Danny's hands grabbed at her body first, pulling her into her larger form. Carmilla let herself be handled, silently thanking her for taking the lead and removing almost all of the pressure weighing on her chest.

 

“Are you aware that you're shivering?” Danny asked quietly, as if Carmilla could have fallen asleep in moments.

 

“Shut up, I'm cold.”

 

Danny's chest rumbled pleasantly and Carmilla allowed herself to drift. Unsuccessfully, but she tried.

 

* * *

 

 

"How are you still shivering, are you cold again?" Danny's voice was right next to her ear, invading four of her senses at once. Carmilla pointedly did not think about taste, and what Danny's anything would tas-

 

No. Absolutely not. Nice hitchhiker, do not kiss the nice hitchhiker. Lie to the hitchhiker.

 

"My Mother hired a man to kill me, I'm a little shaken, Stretch," Carmilla's lies slid out easily. This backfired immediately. Danny's arms tightened around Carmilla's waist, so close that Carmilla could hear her heart racing. Or was that Danny's?

 

Also, she could feel Danny staring at her again.

 

"Do you need anything?" It was absolutely Danny's heartbeat. Carmilla moved until she released her tight hold far enough for her to turn around. Danny's face was the picture of concern. Her arms hadn't retreated. Was she glancing down at Carmilla's lips?

 

Carmilla shook her head in the negative, taking great support and confidence from Danny's pulsing neck. She wished that all of her romantic prospects had visible heartbeats, it would make her life significantly easier.

 

"This is more than enough," Carmilla whispered. "Remind me to thank you for everything tomorrow."

 

Danny breathed out a laugh. "Thank me? Don't be ridiculous, best arm workout I've had in months," she said, nudging Carmilla's legs with her own. Carmilla felt herself blush, and Danny was totally looking at her lips.

 

"You are more than welcome to carry me around all tomorrow as well." Carmilla couldn't stop her face from leaning imperceptibly closer to Danny's. She felt the flexing of Danny's arm muscles along the length of her upper body, acutely taking her back to the strain her body kept them under for the afternoon.

 

Danny's eyebrows knitted together with concern. "How badly is your ankle twisted?"

 

She looked down between them as if she could see through the blankets and her own body to inspect Carmilla's injury. The worry was sweet to Carmilla's heart, not helping her predicament any more than their proximity.

 

"I was kidding," she soothed, "with something to lean on, I should be up and about on my own in time to head out."

 

Danny wavered for a beat, searching for any kind of dishonesty or falsehoods. Carmilla bit her lip when Danny's eyes slid closed and she let out a long breath. "Good, that's good."

 

"Just good?"

 

"Awesome," Danny corrected herself, Carmilla felt her arms tense up again, "I don't think I could carry you for another minute if our lives depended on it."

 

“'I can carry you all day, little lady, not a problem,'” Carmilla mocked quietly with her best cowboy voice. She was rewarded with what could only be described as a slightly violent bear hug. Carmilla gasped for air as Danny huffed her annoyance.

 

“I was trying to help, you were in a lot of pain!” Danny tried to defend herself meekly. She withdrew from the hug, but kept her arms secure around Carmilla. She had a point, the woman burned like a fully raging furnace. It was delightful.

 

“And that was very sweet and foolish of you,” Carmilla said slowly as if she were speaking to a child. “But you didn't have to, I could have stayed in the car or-”

 

Danny reached up to flick her in between her eyes. “Are you really complaining here, or is this some weird doctor-person flirting tactic?”

 

Carmilla's indignant sails lost their wind immediately. “If I were flirting, you'd notice.”

 

Danny's eyebrow rose in challenge. Carmilla instantly found herself looking forwards to the days and weeks and months of torture she could inflict on this woman. Flirting with years of experience behind it, teasing her until she begged for Carmilla, wiping that smug damn smirk off her face.

 

Oh yes, Carmilla could see herself dragging Danny through the most pleasurable Hell imaginable. The likes of which Danny wouldn't recover from for years if not her entire life. She could break the damn hitchhiker and make her like it if Carmilla so chose.

 

However...

 

"Fuck it," Carmilla growled. She pushed Danny's shoulders to the ground, throwing a leg over her body to straddle her. Danny's expression didn't change one little bit, grasping at Carmilla's overcoat with both hands. Carmilla squeaked as she was tugged down. Hands flying out to break her fall, Carmilla revelled in the feeling of their bodies pressing together.

 

"Well hello there!" Carmilla growled again at the teasing, moving a hand to press at her stomach. Danny kept pulling at Carmilla's coat, drawing her closer and closer.

 

Danny's blue eyes shone in the moonlight, brighter now that Carmilla was inches away from them. "Are you going to tease me the whole-"

 

Danny pulled that last little bit and then they were kissing and Carmilla forgot about being annoyed for three whole seconds. Danny's lips were dry but gentle despite the roughness of her hands. Carmilla let Danny hold her up, burying her hands in red hair insistently. Tugging her closer and begging to be let inside. Her hips moved without permission while Danny's hands pulled her coat slowly off her shoulders.

 

Carmilla retreated far enough to speak, "is it a cheesy line if it works?"

 

Danny threw her coat somewhere near their feet and pulled at Carmilla's barely there scraps of fabric she called a shirt, not giving any indication she'd hear the woman on top of her speak. Carmilla complied with her insistent fingers, raising her arms and following the black shirt join her coat with detached interest.

 

She wanted to speak up about the growing disparity of clothing between them, she did. Danny had other ideas, surging upwards to reclaim ridiculously soft lips with punishing force. Someone moaned.

 

Carmilla regretted, rejoiced, and revelled in her fabulous decision to go without a bra for her long journey. Danny's hands were skilled, adventurous, and wandering freely over her bare chest. She dropped her head down to Danny's neck for a few seconds to breath.

 

"Not fair," she groaned. That Danny seemed to hear, pinching at the flesh of her hips. "Really, super not fair."

 

Danny chuckled without breaking her assault. "Like mounting a person without warning, that kind of," Danny's voice dropped, "not fair?"

 

Carmilla whined in the back of her throat as Danny's fingers dipped below her waistline. "Exactly!"

 

"I can stop if you'd pre-"

 

"If you stop, I will not be held accountable for my teeth being imprinted on your neck for a week," she threatened, biting with mild force to get her point across effectively. Danny gasped and squirmed delightfully underneath Carmilla. She used a single finger to circle the button of Carmilla's pants, yelping when Carmilla bit her again as encouragement.

 

"Impatient," she mumbled into Carmilla's hair. She popped open the button one-handed and slowly dragged her zipper down. "Are you going to bite again?"

 

Carmilla's hips jerked forwards without her permission as Danny traced the top of her panties. She let her forehead drop to the ground to resist biting her again. That would be giving up more power than she already had and her ego was already hurting.

 

"Only if you ask real nice and I'm feeling generous."

 

* * *

 

 

 

The cold of the morning did little to bother Carmilla, even with her state of undress. Danny was missing from beside her, but the sky was lightening so she presumed the other woman was off doing outdoor person things. Carmilla understand what that entailed exactly, however she knew that Danny would be all shiny with sweat and flushed with pride at whatever achievement she accomplished.

 

Carmilla stretched as much as she could while keeping one of the variety of fabrics covering her up against her chest. She was for the first time extremely aware of how out in the open the clearing Danny chose to camp in was, everything seemed much more private in the dark.

 

"Good morning, doctor!" Danny called from somewhere in the woods. Carmilla's eyes were still too blurry to accurately see her, but she presumed that she was off towards the river.

 

"Good morning, chipper asshole!" Carmilla yelled back, allowing the full force of her excellent morning attitude to hit Danny in her ridiculous morning person face. She should have seen this travesty coming, no one was perfect and it was high time for Danny to develop a flaw.

 

Carmilla stopped stretching and fell back into the make-shift bed. Twigs cracked and leaves crunched as Danny made her way back to their campsite. Carmilla pulled a blanket over her head to block out the light and the sounds of Danny's approach. She willed herself to ignore Danny's boots coming to a stop next to their bed.

 

"How exactly did you get through med school?" Danny's voice was muffled but Carmilla heard the smug grin shining through and very much wanted to do something about the problem. Besides, Danny was interrupting her important second round of sleeping to ask stupid questions. "Is there a program that starts at noon?"

 

Carmilla was on her in a flash, knocking the taller woman backwards and viciously attacking her lips to make her shut the hell up already. Danny's surprised gasp got lost between them. Her hands reacted better and were instantly on Carmilla's bare skin.

 

Carmilla ground her hips down, grabbing at Danny's neck and raking her nails downward until she was unbuttoning her delightfully rural plaid shirt.

 

"I need to be in town by nightfall," mumbled Danny between lazy kisses. Carmilla pretended not to hear her words. Dragging her lips from Danny's, she kissed her way down her lover's jaw to nip at her throat. Danny moaned and tilted her head back, momentarily forgetting about her responsibilies.

 

Carmilla kept her close and distracted. Going back into town would only provoke Mother further. How she would go further than attempted assassination, Carmilla didn't know. But the thought of it alone terrified her into desperation.

 

"You could stay here?" Danny offered. Carmilla hummed her approval, grabbing at Danny's belt before she remembered that they should be doing things other than each other.

 

Danny battered her hands away. She rolled them over so she was on top, ignoring Carmilla's confused grumbling.

 

"How long will it take you to get there?" Danny laughed into Carmilla's hair, trailing her free hand up the putside of her thigh. "You have to leave soon, don't you?"

 

Carmilla was prevented from feeling the disappointment and loneliness deep inside her gut by Danny grabbing her naked thigh and hooking her leg around her hips. Their lips crashed together so hard that Carmilla could taste blood in her mouth from the collision.

 

Danny rocked against her core, putting more force and urgency into her kisses while Carmilla tried to keep up with her suddenly quick pace. Her hands tangled in red hair, keeping them together. She searched for leverage where she knew there was none.

 

Danny had her firmly pressed into the ground, entirely at her mercy. All she could feel was the maddening almost-enough pressure from above and the flaring heat of Danny's long, wandering fingers. Carmilla let herself lay back, giving up on keeping pace with the woman on top of her.

 

Carmilla whimpered as Danny pulled away, stopping herself from pulling on Danny's hair to keep her in place. Clinging to that small piece of composure, she set Danny and her smug face with a glare.

 

"Fuck you," she hissed. Danny only grinned in response. "Mean asshole."

 

Danny kissed her quickly. "I was going to follow through," she stopped to kiss Carmilla again, "but if you're going to be grumpy..."

 

Carmilla resisted the temptation to whine and pout to get her way. She didn't think it would work all that well on Danny anyway. "Who's grumpy? I have never been grumpy in my entire life!"

 

Danny fought a smile. "I do need to go soon."

 

Carmilla frowned. Her fingers toyed with Danny's hair aimlessly.

 

"There's no way I can argue without sounding like a child, is there?"

 

The morning sun broke through the top of the trees, backlighting Danny as she apparently gave Carmilla's question some serious thought.

 

"We have two options here," whispered Danny while angling her head to get to Carmilla's irresistible neck. "Either I go by myself, and risk the driver seeing me."

 

While the other woman stopped to get lost in sensation, Carmilla lay silent. She hadn't considered the impact of their actions the previous day. Between worrying about Danny's body giving out and the overwhelming desire to screw the woman's brains out, Carmilla didn't really have much brainpower to spare for silly things like their continued health and safety.

 

"What's option two?" Carmilla asked. Danny bit her neck in surprise. "Fuck, so very mean."

 

Danny pulled back, sheepish. "That one was unintentional," she offered quite pathetically.

 

"And I'm the freaking Queen," she bit back, snapping her teeth at Danny's lips. They were still so closely pressed together that Carmilla felt Danny's abdominal muscles contract as she laughed silently.

 

"Doctor, I don't even know your last name, you may as well be the Queen of the World for all I know, your Majesty." Danny accompanied her words with the horrible act of pulling away fully, retreating back to rest on her knees. This did not stop her from openly staring at Carmilla's still-naked body.

 

"Awful forward for not knowing my name," teased Carmilla. Danny went red again, delighting her to no end. "Option two, dear subject?"

 

"The roads only go so far out of town, she can't reasonably find either one of us once we get out of range," Danny explained, sounding more and more unsure of herself as she went along. “Right?”

 

“The ridiculous corporation did only build so many roads, part of the reason Mother moved us here,” Carmilla partially agreed, trailing off into distraction. “She would have to expend more energy and influence than I'm worth to track us down.”

 

Danny frowned deeply at that pile of problems. She opened her mouth to speak but was cut off pre-emptively by Carmilla.

 

“Option two?” Carmilla prompted, leaving no room for questioning. Danny stared at her with blatant suspicion flaring behind her mask of concern. “Danny, option two.”

 

“There's an abandoned logging cabin over that way,” she waved an arm over half the woods, “it's a few days away, but that stupid company hasn't reached out there yet and we wouldn't be found. We wait a while, then move on elsewhere.”

 

Carmilla mulled over this plan. “'Elsewhere'?”

 

“I'm very good with my hands and you're a Doctor, we'd find work anywhere,” Danny explained, blushing when Carmilla smirked. “Shut up.”

 

“Your job?”

 

Danny shrugged. “I go into town at night, tell the boss I'm unavailable, and organise to have my things sent elsewhere for a while. I have money put away so it's not like we'd be living in poverty.”

 

Carmilla knew something felt off about it, but she couldn't quite put her finger on the problem. “The cabin is outside of Lawrence & Sons' sphere of influence?”

 

“As far as I know, and therefore it's probably away from your Mother, too,” Danny reassured without a flinch or a sign of outward dishonesty. “No roads, no lights, no factories, nothing.”

 

“You, me, and a cabin in the woods?”

 

Danny took Carmilla's question to equal her agreement and whooped with glee, getting to her feet and merrily bouncing over to the campfire. Carmilla watched her go, still unable to shake her light unease. She filed it away under her entire life shifting on a monumental scale, and thought nothing of it again.

 

“I didn't actually agree, you idiot!”

 

Danny laughed long and loud.

 

“Yes, but you didn't say no either!”

 

**Author's Note:**

> So there's this beast of a thing. Much longer than expected. Steampunk/Westerns are always fun.
> 
> Let me know if you liked it and if you want more.


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